HOUSTON — We are Standing for Houston by celebrating our neighbors with a new weekday segment called Heroes Nextdoor.
So when Renee Surette saw our Nextdoor post soliciting for good news, she sent in this message.
I saw your post on Nextdoor and thought I would email you about Recycled Cycles of Texas. We are a 501(c)3 that takes in unwanted or underused bicycles from the community. We do needed repairs to make them road worthy then donate them back to the community. We haven’t stopped during the COVID shutdown and have also been able to give bikes to people affected by the recent downward shift in the economy.
Her husband, Ferrell Surette, is a UPS driver by day, fairy godfather by night. He transformed an old shipping container into a bike workship. Walls are lined with boxes of bicycle parts and tools. It’s where he brings unused, broken bikes back to life.
“So we, through neighborhood groups and Girl Scouts and this, that, and the other, people started giving me bicycles. Broken bicycles,” said Surette of his project that started four years ago. “As of yesterday we have given away 244 bicycles. And it’s nothing more than just me and my daughter and my wife that works on these bikes.”
Ferrell’s eight-year old daughter lines up the bikes and fills up the tires. His wife handles the logistics. And together, the family is: Recycled Cycles of Texas.
“We get these bikes together and we just find places were families are in need and we give them away,” said Surette.
The bikes are given away, for free, to children, people who work in the service industry and people who are homeless, “people who are trying to get back on their feet.”
You don’t have to explain why you need a recycled bike.
And Ferrell is now teaming with the Houston Police Department’s PAL program to help get recycled rides to kids living in Denver Harbor.
“They’re a magic carpet. They give me a chance to escape reality,” said Surette. “I can get on my bicycle and I can leave home and I can be independent. And it’s just my magic carpet.”
Don’t have a junked bike to donate, but can spare some change?
Recycled Cycles of Texas is a legit non-profit because there is a cost.
“Hey, you need a bike? That’s as easy as it is. I give bikes away. I’m the bike guy.”
CLICK HERE TO DONATE: Recycled Cycles of Texas